Sunday, January 06, 2008

Spinning day 2

It was an unseasonably warm day here in Pennsylvania. Even more odd being the start of Farm Show week (traditionally we have bad weather at least part of the week, usually snow). This week they are calling for temperatures in the 50s, it may even reach 60!

Despite the warm weather, I did relatively little today. I did practice spinning some more. I wound off the yarn I made yesterday using my new niddy noddy. What a cool tool. It is such a simple thing that makes skeining yarn a breeze. There's about 20 yds of wonky yarn. I soaked it and it's hanging to dry under weight. It does look better than before washing. Today I spun about half a bobbin full. It's coming a bit easier now. I'm having trouble adding a new strip of fiber on and drafting is still a challenge, but it's coming along. I'm able to get longer sections of even thickness yarn and there's fewer overtwisted and undertwisted sections. I find if I pull my roving into fairly thin strips I'm able to control my thickness more easily. And I have to try hard not to let my treadling get to fast. But it really does seem to get a little easier each time I sit down and try. As incentive, I decided to treat myself to some hand-dyed roving. I won't touch it until I'm more consistent, but having it sitting in front of me should keep me motivated to keep trying. Plus it was a fantastic deal, 4 oz for $7 from Hanks in the Hood on Etsy.

The yarn diet is still going strong. Although I was sorely tempted by the Knit Picks catalog that arrived this week. No new yarns, but they have adopted a new look and everything looks so enticing! But I'm committed to finishing these projects and then using some of my stash before I buy more yarn. And there's plenty of good stuff in there. I've still got that luscious Lime & Violet Darvoset from last summer and the Ranco and the RAVEN! Right now, though, knitting seems to be sucking the life out of my sole. I knit exactly 2 rounds on the Jaywalker socks in the last 4 days. I did manage to knit an inch or 2 on the Chevron scarf while watching The Prestige today. But mostly, I haven't been much in the mood to knit. I'm sure this funky will pass soon. For now, I'm enjoying the break and using the free time to get some reading done. My backlog of knitting magazines is immense, but I'm making a dent in it now.